England skipper Steven Gerrard believes Daniel Sturridge and Wayen Rooney are
the perfect strike duo to fire England to the World Cup.

England captain Steven Gerrard is convinced Daniel Sturridge and Wayne Rooney can send Roy Hodgson’s side to the 2014 World Cup.

With both strikers absent for last month's crucial trip to Ukraine, England failed to find a way through the home side's solid defences, and while the 0-0 draw maintained England's unbeaten qualification record, they need at least one victory from their upcoming match against Montenegro and Poland to seal automatic qualification to the finals in Brazil.

Rooney and Sturridge have only played 30 minutes of football together, but Gerrard is convinced the duo offer England the firepower to avoid ending up in the play-offs or potentially missing out on qualification altogether.

"The potential in that partnership is frightening,” Gerrard said. "They are both very skilful, they can both create and they can both score. All the boxes are ticked – they just have to prove they can make it happen. That is the most difficult thing but I have belief in both of them."

With Montenegro arriving at Wembley just a point behind England and level with Ukraine, Gerrard expects the visitors to focus on keeping a clean sheet rather than going all out for victory. The sides have played out three draws in their past three encounters.

"I think they will come here to try and spoil," said Gerrard. "They will come for a point because that keeps them in the race. They will try and slow the game down and break it up.

“We want the opposite – we want it to flow and score early, we want a high tempo. That is why it is such a very intriguing game."

Gerrard is all too aware of the significance of the remaining fixtures in Group H, which could yet see England miss out on a place in the World Cup fro the first time since 1994.

"It doesn't come any bigger," Gerrard said. "We are all going to be judged over the next week on whether we get to the World Cup or not. We all realise the pressure is huge. And in that pressure cooker, we need to produce, perform and deliver."